Friday, October 03, 2008

"It was Ronald Reagan who said that freedom is always just one generation away from extinction. We don't pass it to our children in the bloodstream; we have to fight for it and protect it, and then hand it to them so that they shall do the same, or we're going to find ourselves spending our sunset years telling our children and our children's children about a time in America, back in the day, when men and women were free."

When did Ronald Reagan say this bold, stirring words, quoted by Sarah Palin at the close of the debate yesterday? As Jonathan Chait remembers, he was talking about the terrible extinction of freedom that would result—has resulted!—from the enactment of Medicare. (Via Steve Benen.)